Just to reconfirm: Apple made it so hard to order 500 iPhones that he had to do it 10 phones at a time.

I remember the book by Jack Welsh on GE, there was a chapter devoted to strategy and it was titled “Sometimes its all in the sauce”. Long story, but the only reason why a certain pizza place near his home did well inspite of bad service, not friendly staff and expensive food was that the sauce they put on the pizza was awesome.

Makes you think for sure: If you do create a great product, who cares about the community? They will come no matter what.

But most others (except Apple for e.g.) make OK products, not earth shattering, awesome, mind blowing products. That’s the number one reason to have the community then. Even with an ok product you can still have a great community that helps you get the experience to be great.